PCI-6601 Triggering

[JHourigan]

I am attempting to set-up bi-directional communication between a laser and my residual gas measurement system. The laser is a New-Wave Merchantek UP193He that is capable of sending (sync-out) and receiving (triggger in) 5V TTL triggers.  I currently have an NI PCI-6601 with the CB-68LP unshielded connector.

Basically I want to do two things:

1) Send a 5V trigger to the laser

2) Receive a 5V trigger from the laser

I have connected coaxial cable to the trigger in to the laser and wired it into pins 5 (PFI36/CTR0 Out) and 39 (D Gnd).

The Sync-out from the laser is wired into pin 7 (PFI35/CTR1 In) and 41 (D Gnd).

Using MAX NI-DAQ devices test panels I am attempting to

1) send the trigger using  SINGLE PULSE GENERATION on GPCTR0

2) receive a trigger by SIMPLE EVENT COUNTING on GPCTR1 using the COUNTER'S SOURCE.

Neither of these are working. Having never see up DIO of this nature I am wondering if I am even on the right path...

Any advice would be most appreciated.

[Marni]

Dear JHourigan,

I noticed that you are using Traditional DAQ. While, what you are doing should work, counters are much easier to use in DAQmx. Try the test panels in DAQmx to see if they provide better results. The hardware connections look good. When you say that neither are working, do you mean that nothing is output and the count stays at 0? 

Output the signal from counter 0 out to counter 1 in. Do you get any counts? Check the pins of the PCI-6601 and CB-68LP to make sure that none of them are bent or broken. Try the board in another PCI slot and computer. Do you have another PCI-6601 that you can try? Please let me know what you find. Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Marni S.

[JHourigan]

Marni,

Thanks for the reply. It turns out I was at fault for not configuring the sync out and trigger in settings on the laser approporiately. I was able to sort this out once I got my hands on an oscilloscope. The bi-directional communication works quite well now.

As a follow-up for those attempting this kind of set-up. I found the website below very helpful for making a simple sync out (connected to the OUT Pin GPCTR0) and a trigger in (with slight modification to simple event counting and gate=counter's source) on the SOURCE pin on GPCTR1.

http://sine.ni.com/apps/we/niepd_web_display.display_epd4?p_guid=B45EACE3D99B56A4E034080020E74861&p_...

Jeremy